


Grown Too Quick

by janetcarter



Category: Defiance (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Kid Fic, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25442407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/pseuds/janetcarter
Summary: What did they have if they didn't have each other?
Relationships: Amanda Rosewater & Kenya Rosewater
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4
Collections: Hurt/Comfort Bingo - Round 11





	Grown Too Quick

**Author's Note:**

> For the Hurt/Comfort Bingo prompt "Orphans."

Amanda could hardly sleep these days. It wasn't easy before they left their mom, but it was harder now that she had no one looking out for her. Maybe she never really did, but at least it'd felt like she did back then.

So it was hard knowing now that if she was asleep at the wrong time, they could wake up in chokeholds if they woke up at all. She tightened her grip on the knife she kept beside her, not knowing if she could really use it if the time ever came. On her other side, she stroked Kenya's shaky arm.

If Kenya didn't quiet down soon, her sobs were going to attract company. And two little girls all alone out here were much better off without it.

"Hey," Amanda whispered, shifting closer. As seriously as a whisper could muster, she added, "Kenya, you need to lower your voice."

Kenya sniffled. Her shoulders shook violently as she tried to cut off the outlet of cries. But with Amanda's arms around her, a loving kiss pressed against her cheek, she finally got a hold of herself.

"I… I miss her," she said through choppy breaths. Under the moonlight, Amanda could see Kenya's little face contorting in an effort to fight her sobs.

Amanda felt sick at it all. It felt icky to give pretend sympathies, to act like she was mourning a mother whose heart had stopped, when it was all a lie. But sometimes, even if you're just a kid, you have to do things that are hard. Because it turns out the adults won't.

Maybe, Amanda thought, in a way their mom really was dead.

"I do too," Amanda lied. Or, well, it wasn't a lie exactly. She missed the ignorance she had, the belief that their mom really cared about them instead of herself, that survival didn't matter to her more than family. She missed that. But everything else? The way her mom would tell them stories about a better future, stroke her fingers through their hair as they curled against her and drifted off to sleep…

It was all tainted.

So she had to make sure, for Kenya's sake, they would get a hold of the future they'd hoped for, that it wouldn't just be a story. Only their mom had better stay far, far away.

"What's gonna happen to us?" Kenya asked, holding her necklace. It gleamed in the moonlight like Amanda's blade.

"Nothing's going to happen to us," Amanda replied, biting her tongue to keep her own tears at bay. After all, they were far better off without their mom. Kenya just… didn't realize the real danger she'd narrowly avoided.

"But without… without…" The sobs started again, and Amanda's hand clapped over her mouth. Kenya nodded, still crying.

"Shh, it'll be okay," Amanda whispered into Kenya's hair. She held her even closer, because… there was almost a time where might've never been able to again. And, well, that time might still come. "We'll be okay. I promise."

She had to believe they would be. And maybe, if she said it enough, it'd finally feel like a promise she could keep.

  
  



End file.
